South Africa try to fix defence, kicking

By Mark Gleeson JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - South Africa must improve their defence and their kicking game if they are to be competitive on their four-match tour to Europe next month, the team's beleaguered coach Allister Coetzee said on Thursday. The Springboks have suffered a dramatic slump in form, culminating in a record 57-15 home defeat by world champions New Zealand in the Rugby Championship earlier this month. "We need to rectify two immediate areas of our game which was not good throughout the (Rugby Championship) campaign," Coetzee said. "Our defence is not like it used to be, be it the fact we've become obsessed with ball-in-hand, heads-up, expansive rugby. We were always good at defence but it has become neglected. "The key thing is to get the balance right. Solid defence and improve on our attack. "The other area is our kicking game … territory. Our kicking game hasn't been good because of our poor execution and our poor chase. We've been bogged down. We have to keep the strengths of our rugby and to get better at them," he said. South Africa have spent the week concentrating on Coetzee's concerns at a training camp in Johannesburg. They will meet the Barbarians at Wembley on Nov. 5, followed by tests against England at Twickenham, Italy in Florence and Wales in Cardiff. Last week Coetzee led a meeting of Super Rugby coaches in a bid to find common ground on a uniform playing style across all South African rugby teams. The Springboks lost four of their six matches in the Rugby Championship and only scraped a 2-1 win over Ireland in the home test series in June. (Reporting by Mark Gleeson, editing by Simon Cambers)